Every writer MUST be a reader. You need to fill your mind and imagination with words and possibilities in order to produce pages of your own. Everyone may tell you to write the kind of book you would like to read and that is a good idea… to begin with. The next time push a little harder, a little further. Even if what you write is something you’d never let your friends read.
Categories of books are called genres. Some of the more popular genres include mystery, poetry, romance, action, fantasy, horror, science fiction and more. Classifying your writing is important since it helps you to narrow your target market and the agents or publishers your manuscript can be submitted to. Sending a children’s book to a publisher who specializes in romantic fiction is a waste of everyone’s time. Study the market that a publisher caters to before submitting your work. Most publishers will offer a limited number of genres because in order to effectively market their line of books.
In 2010 LibraryJournal.com stated that fiction books are the most sought after and circulated books. And Wikipedia says that Romantic fiction is the most popular genre in North America. Romance novels are also widely popular in England and Australia and there is sufficient worldwide interest to be produced in more than 90 languages. Romantic fiction can have several subplots including suspense, paranormal, fantasy, erotic, time-travel, inspirational, contemporary, and historical. Romantic niche markets also include LGBT, shape-shifters, Christian and multicultural. Published reports also indicate that women buy approximately 90% of all romantic fiction. Understanding the market and knowing who is buying will help you focus on creating a book that will sell.
Not everyone likes every kind of fiction, just like you may not feel yourself drawn to every book in a book store. Once in a while though, investigate what else is out there. You should read as many genres and styles as possible. Limiting either your reading or your writing is simply – Limiting. Expand your vision. Read a book, pick a favorite genre or a favorite author – and the next book, pick a different genre, a different author. If you find you like it, red more of that style, if you don’t like it, read something else. Just read.
Imagine that your favorite lunch sandwich is bologna, you enjoy it and may even find yourself eating it several days in a row. But if that bologna sandwich is the only thing you ever eat, every single day, it gets boring. Imagine now you are used to eating that bologna sandwich every day, it’s comfortable because it’s expected – eventually you lose your ability to remember other tastes and sensations. Try to describe food when all you have to talk about is a bologna sandwich. Don’t limit yourself.
The best writing guide is a book, any book. It will give you the opportunity to study styles and methods used to express thoughts. Notice how each element of fiction is used in the various genres: Characters, plot, point of view setting and theme. A slight change in focus of the them, main plot and subplots can also change the genre and your target market.
Writing exercise: Make a list of the most significant parts of your life to date. Choose which items you would focus on to turn a story of your life into a romance, a mystery, a science fiction, a comedy and a paranormal. Rewrite that list as an outline for each genre and write an introductory paragraph or two for each.
Writing prompt: Adjectives are used to describe nouns (ie: red, tall, square, hard, etc). Adverbs can describe verbs, other adverbs, adjectives and phrases; adverbs help tell How/What/Why something happens (ie: carefully, quickly, upstairs, usually, after, outside, etc). Make a random list of four adjectives and two adverbs. Now choose ten objects in the room you are in and use ONLY adjectives and adverbs from your list to describe each item. (You do not need to use every adverb and adjective each time)
